


Draco Malfoy Has Never Been Brave

by BluJay27



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28065384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluJay27/pseuds/BluJay27
Summary: Draco Malfoy is not a brave man, he won't deny that, but sometimes we need to do things that don't come naturally.A short character study about Draco and how he changed during the war.
Kudos: 1





	Draco Malfoy Has Never Been Brave

Draco Malfoy has never been brave. As a kid, he wore it as a badge of honor. He sometimes wondered whether he was cunning enough for Slytherin, but at least he didn't have to worry about going for _gryffindor_. For the first five years of his schooling, he didn't really think about it. He wasn't supposed to be brave, so why would it matter that he wasn't? 

But then he was barely sixteen and he had to accept the mark of a madman. Sometimes he looked back on that day as the day everything truly went off the rails. He could no longer go with flow, taking cues from those around him. He had to do the impossible. That was the year he fell apart but he knew he was in too deep. Maybe a braver man could've clawed his way out, but, well, Draco has never been brave. 

Then the one place he'd thought so good even his darkness couldn't taint, turned into a nightmare. He learned to be glad he was good with the unforgivables as he coaxed a pair of third years into casting a crucio. He taught the shy fifth year not only how to cast imperio, but how to pretend his friend's was stronger than it was. He talked down the fourth year who was so convinced she was evil, so sure she didn't deserve to be here, because she was the only one in her class able to cast the killing curse and only evil people can cast that curse, right? He heard the stories of detentions where crucios replaced cauldron scrubbing and whips replaced lines but he could never bring himself to do something. He sometimes wondered what a braver man would have done, but he tried not to. After all, Draco Malfoy is not a brave man. 

He learned what war really meant. He saw how familiar faces disappeared from the great hall and surely they weren't _all_ muggleborn. He poked at the edges of his cowardice, trying on bravery with a," I can't be sure who they are," but ultimately it wasn't him that made the decision to be brave. His mother showed him what it truly meant, when she lied to the only man who ever scared his father. When she decided that her son had spent long enough fighting a war. At first, he wasn't sure how to feel about the decision being taken out of his hands but he also knew that Draco Malfoy wasn't brave enough to make the right choice. 

And then the war was over. He wasn't sure whether he'd won or lost, although after seeing the never-ending funerals and tear-streaked faces of the survivors, he wasn't sure anybody had truly won. At first, he could focus on the now. He avoided Azkaban, learned to relate to a mother he never really understood, tried to carve out a place for himself in a society he helped wreck. Eventually, though, things slowed down and he decided to try to make amends. He wasn't sure how to apologize for something that won't be, can't be, _shouldn't be_ forgiven. Bravery doesn't come naturally to Draco Malfoy, but, for once, he's not going to let that stop him from doing what needs to be done. 


End file.
